tech

Apple's bombshell and the trillion-dollar question

24 Comments
By Rob Lever

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24 Comments
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I agree, as most people would, Apple have pushed their prices too high! But, I think there are many other reasons as well, for one there isn't an infinite number of things you can do on a small phone and the human eye can only see so much detail etc etc. (there is a limit to screen quality etc)

So, what I am saying is, to start with Apple had a clear lead and they had Jobs. Two huge pluses. Now (sadly) Jobs has gone and who can really replace him? And over the years the other companies have improved their products

So, over the years companies using free software (how else can they compete?) catch up to and sometimes even over take Apple in a few areas. One must remember that these companies making cheaper phones with free software (for the most part) make hardly any profit (with a few exceptions due to sheer numbers). One must remember that Apple makes a huge profit! (one of their mistakes IMO)

I think another one of Apples mistakes was to keep on charging higher prices when the reason to choose them was getting smaller and smaller. For me personally, I like iOS and prefer it, especially for security and privacy but I can understand why people opt for cheaper phones

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Eventually, we will have build it yourself phones which will free Technology to move forward -

Already been tried before:

https://www.cnet.com/news/google-lg-lenovo-modular-phones/

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Eventually, we will have build it yourself phones which will free Technology to move forward - unlike the current shackles held by the big players at present.

Once that happens... then, things will start moving. But sadly at present, those big players just restrict everything in order to keep their niche markets tightly in control... Softbank too.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

That said, buying into Android is a fate seeking disaster, but one which is ever narrowing the gap to Apple due to the lack Support....

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I'd like to meet this guy 1 on 1 and tell him what for.... his support team and developers suck recently.

He's destroyed something that shouldn't have been destroyed through Greed... no, Avarice... and it's backfired, so he's trying to blame the Chinese... Hmmm.... whose folk can generally barely afford to scratch a living ?!? Ivory tower blinkeredness or what?

Time to Fire Tim Cook.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Apple is just the beginning... all companies using and in China for production have already lost their technology to them and they have the capabilities and the technical know-how all trained by those companies to make it on their own for their own huge market and still take advantage of the rest of the world. Companies cannot beat the government backed and subsidized companies in China. (Technically in Communist China, the communist party "owns" everything.)

If worst comes to worse, China can "nationalize" all companies and businesses in China, foreign and domestic.

This shows that China has acquired enough to be able to produce enough to supply their own with their own products, innovation or not. They are just as innovative. Interestingly it is said that more than 60% of software programmers in the world are Chinese or Indians (from India), thanks to Silicon Valley.

More and more tech companies are being bought out by Chinese companies and more and more trained engineers and technicians are going home to China after being trained abroad. So China does not need a IPhone anymore.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Well maybe if Apple didn’t make such stupid and annoying commercials.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

BTW. Apple's demise has nothing to do with Trump. Qualcomm however, that's another thorn in their side.

How's the phrase go... "Copyright/Royalty Payback's a bitch isn't it" ?

No sympathy to Apple, nor some other "Copyright holders"... who stretch their "Copy"-right... beyond simply duplication.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Apple's demise started with the "Geniuses" - a bunch of folk who think themselves above the rest of us and act like it. And with the lousy bug-ridden Software releases that were patched up on the fly without official release notifications (yes, they do it... suddenly something that didn't work, now suddenly works for some unexplained reason - config change behind the scene). Yet, they also deny existence of other hardware related issues - even though the "Support Communities" have many users reporting similar issues..... Sounds very much like a Controlled State would act.

For the general populace, they then took it too far with the overpriced iPhone X series that offered little more to those who already had an earlier iPhone, but ... troubling, they lost public confidence by their underhand way of trying encourage people to upgrade by reducing battery life time, (through dubious upgrade functionality - ever wondered why Batter life reduced rapidly when the next new iPhone was being released ?), lack of transparency, and sheer contempt towards anyone who didnt buy into their product line (What you don't have an iWatch?! ). Furthermore, their Legal Practices are ... somewhat draconian - I'm not surprised the Chinese Government cosied up to them, perhaps for a lesson on how to conduct business in the West. You can't sue Apple... period for no matter what (well 50 US$ perhaps...).

Apple needs to fix several things - grouped into 2 areas Support & Quality. The former, ranks highest.

(1) Quality - both the Hardware and Software in their latest X series has issues - significant enough to consider a brand jump. (2) Cost - they need to produce a Quality offering that can appeal to more users, particularly these days as Cost is a factor people consider highly. (3) Attitude - the "Apple is always right, and you are wrong" attitude, needs to be curtailed from their Support forums (paid supporters) through to their Employees. And starting to use an ITIL/ ITSM framework for handling support issues may actually help too. Fixing these 3 issues, may help them to take the lead again.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Apple's strategy of making up decreasing iPhone sales in saturated markets with increasing prices thereby maintaining revenues............ isn't working

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Every country is technically broke, banking based on mortgage repayments, so Apple is the thin end of the wedge, that's why America is so keen to sell as many F35s as possible, even if it means starting a war.

Like cars, our phones will last a decade or more, that's why sales are stagnating, population stabilizing, and Nature recovering, because we actually have to slow down, Globally.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

They didn't feel over priced before but now they do, the market is saturated, and the feeling will spread to cars, and other commodities.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

The unnecessary Trump trade war strikes again.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

One of the reasons i never bought an Iphone is its price is too high. Their are other phones that can do the same as Iphone at a lower price.

To an extent this is true, but one thing a put Apple that people love is the handover from one device to another where you left off or that everything is easily synced.

While other phone makers let others create and sell apps for their phones, Apple forces any one who makes an app for the Iphone to only sell it through Apple and Apple takes a fee for that.

This is one reason why Apple has been so successful at limiting viruses from hacking there system whereas Android platforms are open to every 3rd party app and that never sat well with Jobs.

Apple users have no choice but to buy apps etc from Apple. Other phone users can chose who to buy their apps from.

I know a few people that work as app developers and one that works for Google and they all have iPhones. It’s kind of funny how so many of Apple rivals use iPhones even though they totally trash it. What I’m saying is, I do think Apple has hurt itself with these outrageous prices, but you are getting a better machine overall, but having said that, it doesn’t mean everyone has to have or should buy iPhone, people buy whatever they like and use whatever works for them.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Apple shares plummeted nearly 10 percent on the news Thursday, with the company shedding some 38 percent since its valuation hit $1 trillion last year.

I wonder how many sold shares before that happened ?

Huawei has overtaken Apple as the third largest global smartphone maker despite limited presence in the United States. The update suggested a disappointing figure for iPhone sales, the key driver of revenue and profit for the California tech giant.

Some analysts said Apple erred in boosting the price of its new iPhones to well over $1,000 in a global smartphone market that is largely saturated and facing tougher competition.

One of the reasons i never bought an Iphone is its price is too high. Their are other phones that can do the same as Iphone at a lower price.

"This is not a catastrophe nor is it a sign that Apple is losing its grip on the smartphone market but merely a misjudgment by Apple with regard to how much money people will pay for an iPhone."

An item true value is what people are willing to pay for it. Had they priced the Iphone lower they may have sold more phones and more apps through their store and therefore made more profit.

Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies said Apple is unique among smartphone makers because it has a wide array of apps and services that produce revenue.

"While it is true that no other single product has done for Apple as much as the iPhone, the product offering as an aggregate still puts Apple ahead of all other vendors who might be selling higher volumes but have no direct way to monetize from their users once the sale has occurred," Milanesi said in a blog.

While other phone makers let others create and sell apps for their phones, Apple forces any one who makes an app for the Iphone to only sell it through Apple and Apple takes a fee for that.

Apple users have no choice but to buy apps etc from Apple. Other phone users can chose who to buy their apps from.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Apple had a good game of talk and hype but in the end it is a one trick pony. Everything ever put on an iPhone was already available long ago on android phones. Plus you can add memory with an sd drive which Iphone does not offer. Over hyped over priced. If they are smart they will license the mac OS out. I love it but I'm not paying 1200-2500 for a mac that has the things a 300 windows or chrome based computer has.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The paradox at the heart of capitalism.  Need continued growth otherwise seen as failure.  True of companies as well as countries.

It is still a 84bn revenue company.  So what if its corporate valuation goes to a more reasonable 500bn??

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The is a overriding flaw in Apple CEO Tim Cook business strategy

Cooks fragrant refusal to acknowledge the unmistakable fact that greed has smothered any semblance of innovation.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies said Apple is unique among smartphone makers because it has a wide array of apps and services that produce revenue.

or another way of saying that Android has 85% world market share for OS becucase many of the apps Apples charges for are free with Android.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Get it, Tim? We're out of money for thousand-buck phones.

Phone pricing is going to go the way of desktop computers. For years beginning with my first computer in 1984 each new machine was about $2500, but with my last several prices have fallen, $320 for the most recent.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Seems it's the blame game season in America, from Trump and now big business. Whats wrong with standing up and saying you got it wrong. Apple has priced itself out of the market, especially since technology from South Korea and China has caught up and is leading sales in Asia of their most of their products. Just modifying a product every year and hiking up the price isn't going to solve their problems. The market is looking for something new , what is it, I have no idea. The smart phones today can do everything already, buying a smart phone just for the camera ??. Apple has the brains and the capitol to try for a new challenge, so lets see what you got Apple.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Overpriced itself out of the market.

Not as if they're no longer a player but with those high prices, when there are comparable other brands, they're eventually going to be passed up.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

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